12 Nov 2020, 9:45 am
99942 Apophis nicknamed after the Egyptian God of Chaos is a potential threat for an Earth Impact. It is dangerous due to its large size and the closeness that it's orbit intersecting Earth. The massive, 1,120-foot-wide space rock will fly within 23,441 miles above Earth's surface on April 13, 2029, as well as in 2036. But the fly-by in the year 2068 is what has scientist worried. Should it strike Earth, it would release more kinetic energy than 1,000 megatons of TNT. The atmospheric blast wave (at 1 psi) would extend out around 100 miles from the point of impact.
For comparison, a few months ago there was an explosion at a port in Beirut which brought destruction to the Lebanese capital, damaging buildings, killing more than a hundred people, and injuring thousands of others. Experts told Insider that the blast likely had an explosive yield equivalent to 0.0002 to 0.0003 megatons of TNT.
The asteroid is speeding up because due to the The Yarkovsky effect,which is caused by the sun heating the space rock unevenly. This results in a slight change in the orbit of the Apophis. University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy astronomer Dave Tholen, in a statement. “The new observations we obtained with the Subaru telescope earlier this year were good enough to reveal the Yarkovsky acceleration of Apophis, and they show that the asteroid is drifting away from a purely gravitational orbit by about 170 meters per year, which is enough to keep the 2068 impact scenario in play.” 
Sources:
Apophis asteroid, nicknamed 'God of Chaos,' is speeding up
Comet and Asteroid Threat Impact Analysis
How powerful was the Beirut blast?
Huge Asteroid Apophis Revealed in Photos
